LSC: Necessary Costs

The chairman of the Legal Services Corp. has responded to charges that the board/execs were spending outrageously. (As profiled in a post earlier this week.)

I'm of a mixed mind on this one, to insert some unsolicited editorializing. The sort of people who end up on a national governing board, even a public interest one, generally are used to a certain lifestyle. At the same time, this is public money. At the same time, to respond to myself, people generally have a kneejerk reaction to any spending of public money without considering value received for the dollar, which makes me try to hesitate and analyze this mess. There's also the kneejerk reaction from within the legal services community that any federal question is just an opening gambit before attempts to cut/dismantle the civil legal services programs entirely.

As someone who has some experience with the LSC, I think the regulators need to focus less on the waste of a few thousand dollars and more on the waste of time and energy by legal staff in complying with absolutely pointless regulations.